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Dissembling   /dɪsˈɛmblɪŋ/   Listen
Dissembling

noun
1.
Pretending with intention to deceive.  Synonyms: feigning, pretence, pretense.
2.
The act of deceiving.  Synonyms: deceit, deception, dissimulation.






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"Dissembling" Quotes from Famous Books



... leafed through the texts and picked up a bit here and there. I know when that boy's fooling, and I know he deliberately fluffed the questions Jerry put to him. Timmy's just plain lousy when it comes to dissembling, you know, as if it was completely foreign to him to lie. All right, all right, I know what you're going to say—fond mama building mother's-intuition fantasy ...
— The Short Life • Francis Donovan

... was not a host but a hostess who received him. d'Artagnan was a physiognomist. His eye took in at a glance the plump, cheerful countenance of the mistress of the place, and he at once perceived there was no occasion for dissembling with her, or of fearing anything from one blessed with such a ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... families in the colony. The Major smiled benevolently, and said it was of no use for Philip to think of resisting Mrs. Chisholm; when she had once made up her mind, everybody had to give way, and the thing was settled. Philip, too, smiled faintly, and tried to look pleased, dissembling his outraged feelings, but he went away in a state of indignation. He actually made an attack on the twelve virtues, which seemed all at once to have conspired against his happiness. He said: "If I had not kept ...
— The Book of the Bush • George Dunderdale

... reciprocal subjective relation, which immediately interferes with our taking an objective view. As everybody strives to win either respect or friendship for himself, a man who is being observed will immediately resort to every art of dissembling, and corrupt us with his airs, hypocrisies, and flatteries; so that in a short time we no longer see what the first impression had clearly shown us. It is said that "most people gain on further acquaintance" but what ought to be said is that "they delude ...
— Essays of Schopenhauer • Arthur Schopenhauer

... start at a wonder, they look't for bones and found flesh, they expected a skeleton, and saw an entire bodie, with joynts flexible, his flesh so succulent, that there only wanted heate to make his bodie live without a soul, and his face so dissembling death, that elsewhere it is true that sleep is the image of death, but here death was the image of sleep. Nay, his very funerall weeds were so fresh, as if putrefaction had not dared to ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Durham - A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Episcopal See • J. E. Bygate

... mood for dissembling. "Well," she retorted, "I may pack my trunks if I please. They're my trunks, and my things ...
— Philip Winwood • Robert Neilson Stephens

... left in the ranks, "There's the farm where those Tommies got the porkers." To which I remarked vacantly, "Oh!" Then, further on, "Haven't the oats come on in that field?" Again, I helplessly "Er—yes." Then, "I wonder if they've got any fowls left in that shanty over there?" I, dissembling knowledge no longer, at last observed, "Really I don't understand it. I can't remember this place a bit." To which my neighbour replied, "Don't you remember coming this way when we ...
— A Yeoman's Letters - Third Edition • P. T. Ross

... as one sent to them from the dead; I went myself in chains to preach to them in chains; and carried that fire in my own conscience that I persuaded them to beware of. I can truly say, and that without dissembling, that when I have been to preach, I have gone full of guilt and terror even to the pulpit door, and there it hath been taken off, and I have been at liberty in my mind until I have done my work, and then immediately, even before I could get down the pulpit stairs, ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... Prohack, admirably dissembling his purposes, crept with dignity out of the room, Dr. Veiga followed him, and shut the door, leaving ...
— Mr. Prohack • E. Arnold Bennett

... over there," she observed obliquely, dissembling considerable uncertainty as to what a Central Office man really ...
— Nobody • Louis Joseph Vance

... the time, and have had the cheap credit of obliging his lordship? yet who more glad to find the fountain of that noble bounty, which they had thought dried up, still fresh and running? They came dissembling, protesting, expressing deepest sorrow and shame, that when his lordship sent to them, they should have been so unfortunate as to want the present means to oblige so honourable a friend. But Timon begged them not to give such trifles a thought, for he had altogether forgotten it. And these base ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb

... himself to him, in a newer habit and one made of finer cloth than those of the other brethren, the cowl of which was longer and the sleeves wider, and he assumed an air little suitable to his profession. Francis, dissembling what was passing in his mind, said to him before the assistants:—"I beg you to lend me that habit." Elias did not dare refuse: he went aside and took it off and brought it to him. Francis put it on over his own, smoothed it down, plaited it nicely under the girdle, threw the cowl over ...
— The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi • Father Candide Chalippe

... of a window that looked out upon the hot, sunlit courtyard. There, as Anjou himself tells us, they found themselves hemmed about by some two hundred sullen, grim-faced gentlemen and officers of the Admiral's party, who eyed them without dissembling their hostility, who preserved a silence that was disturbed only by the murmurs of their constant whisperings, and who moved to and fro before the royal group utterly careless of the proper degree of deference ...
— The Historical Nights' Entertainment • Rafael Sabatini

... his negotiations. But the message itself was taken later to Manila by another person, on account of the illness and death of Don Luis in Nangasaqui. Taicosama rejoiced over his answer to the ambassador, for he had practically done nothing of what was asked of him. His reply was more a display of dissembling and compliments than a desire for friendship with the Spaniards. He boasted and published arrogantly, and his favorites said in the same manner, that the Spaniards had sent him that present and embassy ...
— History of the Philippine Islands Vols 1 and 2 • Antonio de Morga

... Methinks thou shouldst not bring them else; yet he Is full of deep dissembling; knows no honour Divided from his interest. Fate mistook him; For nature meant him for an usurer: He's fit indeed ...
— All for Love • John Dryden

... me almost gaily, and I was just pretending to compare it with mine, when there was a smart rap on the door and Vard stalked in. There was always a civic majesty in his gait, an air of having just stepped off his pedestal and of dissembling an oration in his umbrella; and that day he surpassed himself. Miss Vard had turned pale at the knock; but the mere sight of him replenished her veins, and if she now avoided my eye, it was in mere pity ...
— The Greater Inclination • Edith Wharton

... for a parson, girl, the forerunner of a midwife, some nine months hence. Well, I find dissembling to our sex is as natural as swimming to a negro; we may depend upon our skill to save us at a plunge, though till then, we never make the experiment. ...
— The Comedies of William Congreve - Volume 1 [of 2] • William Congreve

... cattle near Gamewell. 'Twas clear that a vision of them, purchased for twenty paltry gold pieces, had been with him all through the night, in his dreams. And Robin again appeared such a silly fellow that the Sheriff saw no need of dissembling, but said that he was ready to start at once to look ...
— Robin Hood • J. Walker McSpadden

... Ye cannot beseech From pure Priscian speech. Divers as nice, Like this odd vice, Are word-makers daily. Others in courtesy, Whenever they meet ye, With new fashions greet ye: Changing each congee, Sometime beneath knee, With, "Good sir, pardon me," And much more foolery, Paltry and foppery, Dissembling knavery: Hands sometime kissing, But honesty missing. God give no blessing To such ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various

... has reduced his prince to the necessity of dissembling, can never expect a sincere and lasting forgiveness; and the tragic fate of Constans soon deprived Athanasius of a powerful and generous protector. The civil war between the assassin and the only surviving brother of Constans, which afflicted the empire above three years, secured ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon

... Man, we are by Nature False, Dissembling, Subtle, Cruel, and Unconstant: When a Man talks of Love, with Caution trust him: But if he Swears, he'll ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... like a lion that unheeded lay, Dissembling sleep, and watchful to betray, With inward rage he meditates ...
— Select Poems of Thomas Gray • Thomas Gray

... brief in discourse, In plain terms I'll tell you my mind; My qualities you shall all know, And to what my humour's inclined: I hate all dissembling base knaves And pickthanks whoever they be, And for painted-faced drabs, and such like, They shall never get penny of me. For this I will make it appear, And prove by experience I can, 'Tis the excellen'st thing in the world To ...
— Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of England • Robert Bell

... no, dear madam. Do but hear me, have but a moment's patience—I'll confess all. Mr. Mirabell seduced me; I am not the first that he has wheedled with his dissembling tongue. Your ladyship's own wisdom has been deluded by him; then how should I, a poor ignorant, defend myself? O madam, if you knew but what he promised me, and how he assured me your ladyship should come to no damage, or else the wealth of the Indies should not have bribed me to conspire against ...
— The Way of the World • William Congreve

... were altogether false, that she was vulgar and commonplace. So the king, believing his friend, turned his thoughts to other ladies; but before long some rumours of the way in which he had been deceived came to the king's ear, and he, dissembling his purpose and not telling him of what he had heard, simply told AEthelwold that on a certain day he intended to visit the lady himself. AEthelwold, in alarm, hurried to his wife and begged her to conceal her beauty and clothe herself in unbecoming attire, so that ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: A Short Account of Romsey Abbey • Thomas Perkins

... the agitations of my mind prognosticated; it was not without cause that my love took alarm; my continual suspicions were hateful to you, but I was trying to discover the misfortune my eyes have beheld; in spite of all your care, and your skill in dissembling, my star foretold me what I had to fear. But do not imagine that I will bear unavenged the slight of being insulted! I know that we have no command over our inclinations; that love will everywhere spring up spontaneously; ...
— Don Garcia of Navarre • Moliere

... it before that," replied Trent with a slightly crestfallen air. "And I thought I was acting the part of a person who was not mad about her to the life. Well, I never was any good at dissembling. I shouldn't wonder if even old Peppmueller noticed something through his double convex lenses. But however crazy I may have been as an undeclared suitor, I am going to be much worse now. Here's the place," he broke off, as the cab rushed down a side-street and swung round a corner into a ...
— The Woman in Black • Edmund Clerihew Bentley

... I wanted to have you say to me," he answered, dissembling his feelings in a glance which would have reassured ...
— Father Goriot • Honore de Balzac

... be my Faulkland's most ardent wish. He is too generous to trifle on such a point:—and for his character, you wrong him there, too. No, Lydia, he is too proud, too noble to be jealous; if he is captious, 'tis without dissembling; if fretful, without rudeness. Unused to the fopperies of love, he is negligent of the little duties expected from a lover—but being unhackneyed in the passion, his affection is ardent and sincere; and as it engrosses ...
— The Rivals - A Comedy • Richard Brinsley Sheridan

... happy, how gay were my spirits, as I walked from the cottage to Allenham, satisfied with myself, delighted with every body! But in this, our last interview of friendship, I approached her with a sense of guilt that almost took from me the power of dissembling. Her sorrow, her disappointment, her deep regret, when I told her that I was obliged to leave Devonshire so immediately—I never shall forget it—united too with such reliance, such confidence in me! Oh, God! what a ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen

... feature, dislikes a traitor, no provision has been made for dissembling. This society is ruled by Nature, as our God!—and it is the duty of each and every member to do all in his power to promote the welfare of his Brethren, as, by so doing, he must in time convince all observers that the Secret Brothers are the only true ...
— Secret Band of Brothers • Jonathan Harrington Green

... pocket, and his spirits low, He'd beg, write panegyrics, cringe, and bow; But when good pensions had his labours crown'd, His panegyrics into satires turn'd; O what assiduous pains does Prior take To let great Dorset see he could mistake! Dissembling nature false description gave, Show'd him the poet, ...
— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli

... had some glimpse of this, namely: all my means are sane, my motive and my object mad. Yet without power to kill, or change, or shun the fact; he likewise knew that to mankind he did long dissemble; in some sort, did still. But that thing of his dissembling was only subject to his perceptibility, not to his will determinate. Nevertheless, so well did he succeed in that dissembling, that when with ivory leg he stepped ashore at last, no Nantucketer thought him otherwise than but naturally grieved, and that ...
— Moby Dick; or The Whale • Herman Melville

... make me justly think it not only a true vision, but real witchcraft; for I had so long lost my strength I cou'd not rise: My mind at last, a little freed, began by degrees to recover its vigour, upon which I went to my lodging, and dissembling a faintness, lay down on the bed. A little after Gito, being inform'd I was ill, came to me, much troubl'd; but to allay his concern, I told him I was only a little weary, and had a mind for a nap. Several things I talkt to him of, but not a word of my last adventure, for I was afraid ...
— The Satyricon • Petronius Arbiter

... her distinct object in the negotiations: "The queen, to protract the time till supplies of men and other necessary provisions arrived, and to abate the fervor of the enemy, being constrained to have recourse to her wonted arts, excellently dissembling those ...
— History of the Rise of the Huguenots - Volume 2 • Henry Baird

... dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembling crocodile, a treacherous decoy, and a rapacious vulture." This was the poet Cowley's opinion. "Of all the animals" scolds Boileau, "which fly in the air, walk on the ground, or swim in the sea, from Paris to Peru, from ...
— The Golden Censer - The duties of to-day, the hopes of the future • John McGovern

... Mr. Evans, striving for a masterly finish to the unequal combat. He arose, dissembling cheerful confidence, straightened the frame of a steel-engraved Daniel Webster on the wall, and thrice paced the length of the room, falsely appearing to be ...
— The Sturdy Oak - A Composite Novel of American Politics by Fourteen American Authors • Samuel Merwin, et al.

... Christians and Saracens on horseback. At the sight whereof, he demanded whether I would bestow all those things vpon his lord or no? Which saying made me to tremble, and grieued me full sore. Howbeit, dissembling our griefe as well as we could, we shaped him this answer: Sir, our humble request is, that our Lorde your master would vouchsafe to accept our bread, wine, and fruits, not as a present, because it is too meane, but as a benediction, least we should come with ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries - Vol. II • Richard Hakluyt

... false dissembling wretch! That slayest me with thy harsh and hellish tale, Thou for some pettie guift hast let him goe, And I am thus deluded of my boy: Away with her to prison presently, Traytoresse too keend and ...
— The Tragedy of Dido Queene of Carthage • Christopher Marlowe

... nation was corrupted from that integrity, good nature, and generosity, that had been peculiar to it, and for which it had been signal and celebrated throughout the world; in the room whereof the vilest craft and dissembling had succeeded. The tenderness of bowels, which is the quintessence of justice and compassion, the very mention of good nature, was laughed at and looked upon as the mark and character of a fool; and a roughness of manners, or hardheartedness ...
— The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon V2 • Henry Craik

... until she was able to make a clean breast of her symptoms instead of concealing them? In their eagerness to stamp out disease, these people overshot their mark; for people had become so clever at dissembling—they painted their faces with such consummate skill—they repaired the decay of time and the effects of mischance with such profound dissimulation—that it was really impossible to say whether any one was well or ill till after an intimate acquaintance ...
— Erewhon • Samuel Butler

... the same time, strange to relate, he felt an incredible relief, almost delight. It was ended then, all was over; the game was lost. No more anguish now, no more useless fright and foolish terrors, no more dissembling, no more struggles. Henceforth he had nothing more to fear. His horrible part being played to the bitter end, he could now lay aside ...
— The Widow Lerouge - The Lerouge Case • Emile Gaboriau

... actual growth and improving height of all the sublimer arts, like that of trees, affords a pleasing prospect; whereas the roots and stems are scarcely beheld with indifference: and yet the former cannot subsist without the latter. But whether I am restrained from dissembling the pleasure I take in the subject, by the honest advice of the ...
— Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker. • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... a good Assurance, and demanded both Principal and Interest. I was then at my Lodging, but being sent for, I was strangely surpris'd to see the Clerk of my Company, who was also a Sergeant, metamorphos'd into my Brother. He shrunk two Inches lower at the Sight of me; but dissembling the matter, I am glad to see thee alive Sergeant said I, for I took it for granted you were kill'd at the Battle of Launden; and I, reply'd the impudent Villain, thought you had, otherwise I had not been here: but if you please, noble Captain, to walk into the next Tavern and give me leave to ...
— Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins (1718) • Daniel Defoe

... he continued to come to the house, always affable and sweet, dissembling his passion, which was visible only when he became jealous of new-comers, overwhelming with attentions the ex-ballet-dancer, to whom his pleasant manners were gratifying in spite of everything, and who ...
— The Nabob, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alphonse Daudet

... whom pleasure is denied? You will give me your assent; for there is none I know among you so wise shall I say, or so silly, as to be of a contrary opinion. The Stoics indeed contemn, and pretend to banish pleasure; but this is only a dissembling trick, and a putting the vulgar out of conceit with it, that they may more quietly engross it to themselves: but I dare them now to confess what one stage of life is not melancholy, dull, tiresome, tedious, and uneasy, unless we spice it with pleasure, that hautgoust of Folly. Of the truth ...
— In Praise of Folly - Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts • Desiderius Erasmus

... of Queen Elizabeth associated with progress Her birth and education Her trials of the heart Her critical situation during the reign of Mary Her expediences Her dissembling State of the kingdom on her accession to the throne Rudeness and loyalty of the people Difficulties of the Queen The policy she pursued Her able ministers Lord Burleigh Archbishop Parker Favorites of Elizabeth ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VIII • John Lord

... he replied, dissembling; for he saw at once, by Connor's agitated manner, that every word she uttered was a lie; "the sleep will be good for her, the darlin'; but take care of her, Connor, for the masther's sake; for what would become of him if any thing happened her? You ...
— Willy Reilly - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton

... Popery, uttering these words: "I will, for awhile, set Christ behind the door, until I be grown rich, and then I will take him to me again." Such and the like blasphemous words do deserve the highest punishments, as befell that wicked dissembling wretch, for the same night he was found in his bed in a most fearful manner, with his tongue torn out of his mouth, as black as a coal, and his neck wrung in twain. Myself, said Luther, at that time ...
— Selections from the Table Talk of Martin Luther • Martin Luther

... their heads proudly in the world, but to sink as low as this seemed too terrible, too humiliating. Yet, after all, could she blame her daughter? What was her present life, what would be her future, without education, without money—unless she had someone who could take care of her? Dissembling her indignation as much ...
— Bought and Paid For - From the Play of George Broadhurst • Arthur Hornblow

... other than an inseparable conjunction of life. Good God! What divorces, or what not worse than that, would daily happen were not the converse between a man and his wife supported and cherished by flattery, apishness, gentleness, ignorance, dissembling, certain retainers of mine also! Whoop holiday! how few marriages should we have, if the husband should but thoroughly examine how many tricks his pretty little mop of modesty has played before she was married! And how fewer of them would hold together, did not most of the wife's actions escape ...
— The Praise of Folly • Desiderius Erasmus

... and looked at him again, swiftly but haggardly. She would never have conceived the possibility of a man dissembling so, in letters first and lying again in every move and every tone of his voice. How could he keep it so tranquil and unmoved? Yet when he came near her again, insisting on filling her cup once more, she seemed for an instant to forget the rough clothes, the mean little shack, ...
— The Peace of Roaring River • George van Schaick

... "to dissemble. It was necessary to flatter Robespierre's vanity, and, by panegyric, to impel him to the attack. This was the motive which induced me to load him with those praises of which you complain. Whoever blamed Brutus for dissembling with Tarquin?" ...
— Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... are dominated by passion, and not in spite of the fact, chooses them indeed precisely for the reasons for which it ought to reject them, that any moderate, clear-headed, practical man who wants to be elected and make use of his powers, has to start by dissembling his moderation, and by making a noisy display of factious violence. If he wants to be nominated to a post where it will be his business to defend and guarantee public security, he has to begin by advocating civil war: to become a peacemaker he must ...
— The Cult of Incompetence • Emile Faguet

... business of the sea. Then the pilot and master named them, and they were three seamen. Upon this the captain-major retired to his cabin, and told his servants to stand at the door of the cabin, and put inside the clerks to draw up the document, and ordered the three seamen to enter; and, dissembling, he made inquiries as to returning to port, and all was written down and they signed it. He then ordered them to go down below to another cabin which he had beneath his own for a store-cabin, and he ordered the clerk to go down also with them, and he summoned the master and pilot ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 8 - The Later Renaissance: From Gutenberg To The Reformation • Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson

... don't spill your milk on your bibs," he answered them, with a dissembling smile that would have done credit to Mr. Height himself when upon the boards with Miss Hawtry. They departed in great spirits, and Mr. Vandeford noticed that Mr. Height had not been at all concerned as to how his manager's inner man ...
— Blue-grass and Broadway • Maria Thompson Daviess

... of La Chatre became peculiar. He spoke to mademoiselle, while he looked at Montignac, as if he were taking an unexpected opportunity to carry out something prearranged between him and the secretary; as if he were dissembling to her, and sought Montignac's attention and approval. His look seemed to say to the secretary, "You see how well I am doing it?" Montignac stood with folded arms and downcast eyes, attending carefully to La Chatre's words, but having too much tact ...
— An Enemy To The King • Robert Neilson Stephens

... one of those special and rare exigencies or emergencies, which constitute the justa causa of dissembling or misleading, whether it be extreme as the defence of life, or a duty as the custody of a secret, or of a personal nature as to repel an impertinent inquirer, or a matter too trivial to provoke question, as in dealing with children or madmen, there ...
— Apologia pro Vita Sua • John Henry Newman

... flocks and herds That journey'd with him, just without the walls, In a dark vale were left. When the first grant T'approach the monarch was obtain'd, he rais'd The olive in his suppliant hand; then told His name, and lineage, but his crime conceal'd. His cause of flight dissembling, next he beg'd, For him and his, some pastures and a town. Then thus Trachinia's king with friendly brow: "To all, the very meanest of mankind, "Are our possessions free; nor do I rule "A realm inhospitable: add to these "Inducements strong, thine own illustrious name, "And ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid

... the mixed craft of old dissembling Nature! If I could look upon her smallest web, And see in it but crossed and harmless hairs, Then might I trust the Prophet's knotted seine. I did not like the manner of those chiefs Who spoke so fairly. What ...
— Tecumseh: A Drama • Charles Mair

... bring matters to an end and in despair that he had fired the camp of the Libyans. This army came to him like a relief from the gods; dissembling his joy he replied: ...
— Salammbo • Gustave Flaubert

... him for the life of Mr. Hamilton, which there was reason to believe would be granted. This measure affords full proof, that notwithstanding the friendly conferences which they kept up with him for some time, they had resolved on his ruin from the beginning: but such instances of Popish dissembling were not new even in ...
— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie

... sons and daughters in the utmost liberty both of thought and speech; who do not instill dogmas into them, but inculcate upon them the sovereign importance of correct ways of forming opinions; who, while never dissembling the great fact that if one opinion is true, its contradictory cannot be true also, but must be a lie and must partake of all the evil qualities of a lie, yet always set them the example of listening to unwelcome opinions with patience and candour. Still all parents are not ...
— On Compromise • John Morley

... Admirall were in danger to bee cast away. Whilest he was thus perswading, he caused the lead to be cast, and hauing craftily brought the shippe in three fadome and a halfe water, he suddenly began to sweare, and teare God in pieces, dissembling great danger, crying to him at the helme, beare vp hard, beare vp hard, so we went off, and were disappointed of our salt, by ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of - the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. • Richard Hakluyt

... remayne ther / it wil brust forthe at lengthe / and a litill leauen will soure the whole lumpe of dowe. &c. Truly for all this goodly clooke / it is easily perceyued that through this dissembling the edifying of the churche is hindered and not furthered. These men pretende with Athlas to beare vp heauen withe their shulders / but they do ouerthrow altogether: Godd doth se more then we / in the thinges which shall happen to the churche: We must obeye hym in seruyng hym and his ...
— A Treatise of the Cohabitation Of the Faithful with the Unfaithful • Peter Martyr

... victoriously. Really innocent, he had reached the age of twenty without knowing anything about it, or without ever having any natural impulse to discover it, but being tenacious of purpose, curious and dissembling, he asked no questions, but observed all that ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume II (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant

... notions proved the truest. Now, seeing he was to take Sarai with him, and was afraid of the madness of the Egyptians with regard to women, lest the king should kill him on occasion of his wife's great beauty, he contrived this device:—he pretended to be her brother, and directed her in a dissembling way to pretend the same, for he said it would be for their benefit. Now, as soon as he came into Egypt, it happened to Abram as he supposed it would; for the fame of his wife's beauty was greatly talked of; for which ...
— The Antiquities of the Jews • Flavius Josephus

... symptoms of disaffection with deep anxiety, said little, says Martyr, but coolly scrutinized the minds of those around him, dissembling as far as possible his own sentiments. [14] He received further and more unequivocal evidence, at this time, of the alienation of his son-in-law. An Aragonese gentleman, named Conchillos, whom he had placed near the person of his ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V3 • William H. Prescott

... AEsop's fox becomes a prey at last. 60 Nor shall the royal mistresses be named, Too ugly, or too easy to be blamed, With whom each rhyming fool keeps such a pother, They are as common that way as the other: Yet sauntering Charles, between his beastly brace,[53] Meets with dissembling still in either place, Affected humour, or a painted face. In loyal libels we have often told him, How one has jilted him, the other sold him: How that affects to laugh, how this to weep; 70 But who can rail so long as he can sleep? Was ever prince by two at once misled, ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol I - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden

... Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass; I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty To strut before a wanton ambling nymph; I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt by them,— Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, Have no delight to pass away the time, ...
— Familiar Quotations • John Bartlett

... Philip. For his own hands and his own purposes he reserved the task; and at a later period, the wreck of the Armada strewed the shores of Britain with memorials of his gigantic and innocuous malignity. Dissembling, however, his displeasure, he permitted Don John to expect, when the Netherlands had been pacified, his approval of the ...
— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 • Various

... from the virtues and the defects of their character; they have too much openness of disposition, and too little acuteness and nicety of understanding. It is remarkable that, with greater violence of passion, the Southern nations possess, nevertheless, in a much higher degree the talent of dissembling. In the North, life is wholly founded on mutual confidence. Hence, in the drama, the spectators, from being less practised in intrigue, are less inclined to be delighted with concealment of views and their success ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art - and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel trans John Black

... accuse thee, Silius. Against the majesty of Rome, and Caesar, I do pronounce thee here a guilty cause, First of beginning and occasioning, Next, drawing out the war in Gallia, For which thou late triumph'st; dissembling long That Sacrovir to be an enemy, Only to make thy entertainment more. Whilst thou, and thy wife Sosia, poll'd the province: Wherein, with sordid, base desire of gain, Thou hast discredited thy actions' worth, And been a ...
— Sejanus: His Fall • Ben Jonson

... nevertheless, in dissembling, and he hid his chagrin perfectly. There was only reproach in his voice as ...
— Within the Law - From the Play of Bayard Veiller • Marvin Dana

... seeing the treachery intended by the minister, dissembling his anger, sent word to his brother that he was convinced, even should the boats full of goods be landed, he himself would not be given up; and he therefore charged him to send the hostages on shore, and then to make sail and return ...
— Notable Voyagers - From Columbus to Nordenskiold • W.H.G. Kingston and Henry Frith

... go now, boy," she said at about the moment in which I could no longer keep my dissembling alive. "Send the Governor in here to me, for it is about the time I had promised to dance with him. I want to talk with him and try to make him see some at least of this matter in the right light. Go; and come to me to-morrow at ...
— The Daredevil • Maria Thompson Daviess

... of a woman of twenty-eight who was suddenly surprised by some one entering her chamber at the moment she was introducing a cedar pencil into her vagina. With the purpose of covering up her act and dissembling the woman sat down, and the shank of the wood was pushed through the posterior wall of the vagina into the peritoneal cavity. The intestine was, without doubt, pierced in two of its curves, which was demonstrated later by an autopsy. A plastic exudation had evidently agglutinated the intestine at ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... receive, yet very backward to part with any thing. And if one neighbour asketh ought of another, or to borrow any thing, which the other is unwilling either to give or lend, they never will plainly deny by saying, I cannot or will not; but with dissembling they will excuse themselves, saying, They have it not, or is it lent abroad already, altho it be with them in the house at the ...
— An Historical Relation Of The Island Ceylon In The East Indies • Robert Knox

... myself, under correction, that all this part of the history of the Reformation has been misunderstood by our older historians. Almost without exception, they represent the Regent as dissembling with the Reformers till, on conclusion of the peace of Cateau Cambresis (which left France free to aid her efforts in Scotland), April 2, 1559, and on the receipt of a message from the Guises, "she threw off the mask," and initiated an organised persecution. But there is no evidence that ...
— John Knox and the Reformation • Andrew Lang

... distortion, false coloring; exaggeration &c 549; prevarication, equivocation, shuffling, fencing, evasion, fraud; suggestio falsi &c (lie) 546[Lat]; mystification &c (concealment) 528; simulation &c (imitation) 19; dissimulation, dissembling; deceit; blague[obs3]. sham; pretense, pretending, malingering. lip homage, lip service; mouth honor; hollowness; mere show, mere outside; duplicity, double dealing, insincerity, hypocrisy, cant, humbug; jesuitism, jesuitry; pharisaism; Machiavelism, "organized hypocrisy"; crocodile tears, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... human form, that bears a heart— A wretch, a villain, lost to love and truth— That can, with studied, sly, ensnaring art, Betray sweet Jenny's unsuspecting youth? Curse on his perjur'd arts, dissembling, smooth! Are honour, virtue, conscience, all exil'd? Is there no pity, no relenting ruth, Points to the parents fondling o'er their child? Then paints the ruin'd maid, and their ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson

... Earle, and all his progenie to perpetuall exile: promising great giftes and rewardes, to them that would present them quicke or dead. The Erle being offended in his conscience, for that he was fled, innocent of the facte, made himself culpable therof, and arriued at Callice with his children, dissembling what he was, and sodainlye passed ouer into England, and in poore apparell, trauailed vp to London. And before he entred the citie, he gaue his children diuers admonicions, but specially of two things: First, that they should beare paciently the ...
— The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1 • William Painter

... scarcely settled at Onondaga before signs of the dangers that were gathering became too plain for the blind zeal of the Jesuits to ignore. Cayugas, Onondagas, and Senecas, togged out in war-gear, swarmed outside the palisades. There was no more dissembling of hunger for the Jesuits' evangel. The warriors spoke no more soft words, but spent their time feasting, chanting war-songs, heaving up the war-hatchet against the kettle of sagamite—which meant the rupture of peace. Then came four hundred Mohawks, ...
— Pathfinders of the West • A. C. Laut

... certain gift of irony." That is profoundly true. A would-be writer of light verse who has not an ironical habit of mind had better change his purpose and write an epic. Locker has his full share of the necessary gift. Half gay, half melancholy, always ironical—dissembling most of pain and some of pleasure—he is in certain ways the appropriate spokesman of a society like our own, which is really most natural when most dissembling, or dismissing with a smile, its deeper emotions. There is nothing ...
— London Lyrics • Frederick Locker

... and he kissed the maiden, and sent her into the tent. A little while afterward, the queen came and spoke to him and asked him about the man to whom their daughter was to be wedded; and Agamemnon, still dissembling, told her that the hero's name was Achilles, and that he was the son of old Peleus and ...
— Hero Tales • James Baldwin

... "True," said I, dissembling my chagrin, "yourself and Dawton have made an admirable exchange. Think you the ministry can be said to be ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... might pretend to look at the weather, which was fine; or he might affect earnest conversation with a bystander: it was bootless. The pony saw through it. No feint hoodwinked him. This animal was thoroughly a man of the world. His undistracted eye stayed fixed upon the dissembling foe, and the gravity of his horse-expression made the matter one of high comedy. Then the rope would sail out at him, but he was already elsewhere; and if horses laugh, gayety must have abounded in that corral. Sometimes the pony took a turn alone; next he had slid in a flash among his brothers, ...
— The Virginian - A Horseman Of The Plains • Owen Wister

... the will and work of man. Contrast that scene, and the radiant emotion evoked by it, with this? Which was real, the enduring revelation? Was this truth; the other no more than mirage—an exquisite dissembling and lovely lie? ...
— Deadham Hard • Lucas Malet

... At dinner, the husband purposely gave the shoulder-bone of the ram, properly cleaned, to his wife, who was also well skilled in this art, for her examination; when, having for a short time examined the secret marks, she smiled, and threw the oracle down on the table. Her husband, dissembling, earnestly demanded the cause of her smiling, and the explanation of the matter. Overcome by his entreaties, she answered: "The man to whose fold this ram belongs, has an adulterous wife, at this time pregnant by the commission of incest with his own grandson." The husband, ...
— The Itinerary of Archibishop Baldwin through Wales • Giraldus Cambrensis

... their wants, &c. as if he had been made all of love, and y^e humblest person in the world. And all the while (if we may judg by his after cariags) he was but like him mentioned in Psa: 10. 10. That croucheth & boweth, that heaps of poore may fall by his might. Or like to that dissembling Ishmaell,[BS] who, when he had slaine Gedelia, went out weeping and mette them y^t were coming to offer incence in y^e house of y^e Lord; saing, Come to Gedelia, when he ment to slay them. They gave him y^e best entertainment y^ey could, (in all simplisitie,) and a ...
— Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' • William Bradford

... inveighed against me, as alarming the people with imaginary dangers, and drawing them into quarrels in which they had really no concern. This language, and the fair professions of Philip, who was perfectly skilled in the royal art of dissembling, were often so prevalent, that many favourable opportunities of defeating his designs were unhappily lost. Yet sometimes, by the spirit with which I animated the Athenians and other neighbouring states, I stopped the progress of his arms, and opposed to him such obstacles as cost him much ...
— Dialogues of the Dead • Lord Lyttelton

... feelings the Abbe Cavelier and his nephew, Father Anastase, and I regarded these murderers, of whom we expected to be the victims every moment." [Footnote: Journal Historique, 205.] They succeeded so well in their dissembling, that Duhaut and his accomplices seemed to lose all distrust of their intentions; and Joutel says that they might easily have avenged the death of La Salle by that of his murderers, had not the elder Cavelier, through scruple or cowardice, ...
— France and England in North America, a Series of Historical Narratives, Part Third • Francis Parkman

... years of age 5 feet 8 or 10 inches high; has two remarkable scars on his breast and is much scarified about the neck and throat, caused by a disorder he was cured of some years ago; CAN READ A LITTLE, and a very dissembling fellow. He took with him sundry cloaths, among which are a blue cotton coat, with metal buttons, a striped jacket, a pair of blue cotton, and a pair of corduroy breeches. It is probable he will endeavor to pass for a freeman, and try to get on board some vessel; all ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Vol. I. Jan. 1916 • Various

... slander, against our whole Nation: dissembling in the meane time with what honestie certaine Germans, making yerely voyages into Island, deale with our men. But seeing by this complaint I haue not determined to reproch others, but to lay open the vndeserued reproches of others against oar nation, ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries - of the English Nation, v. 1, Northern Europe • Richard Hakluyt

... he, "it is no use dissembling with me, I know all. Be easy; we are playing a game in which you are laying one against a thousand; moreover, here is something on account to compensate you for the trouble ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... its murders and outrages. Here it is equally vain to look for revelations from the mercenary workers, who know nothing, or from the elevated leaders, who know all, but have an interest of life and death in dissembling their knowledge. Revelations of any value from those who cannot, and from those who will not, reveal the ambitious schemes communicated to a very few, are alike hopeless. In default of these, let us examine if any one incident, or class of incidents, in ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey

... thereby. Here were to be seen depicted the slaying of Horwendil; the fratricide and incest of Feng; the infamous uncle, the whimsical nephew; the shapes of the hooked stakes; the stepfather suspecting, the stepson dissembling; the various temptations offered, and the woman brought to beguile him; the gaping wolf; the finding of the rudder; the passing of the sand; the entering of the wood; the putting of the straw through the gadfly; the warning of the youth by the tokens; and ...
— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")

... upon thy lip Shall tell it, and the tenderer bloom o'er all 370 That soft cheek springing to the marble neck, Which bends aside in vain, revealing more What it would thus keep silent, and in vain The sense of praise dissembling. Then my song Great Nature's winning arts, which thus inform With joy and love the rugged breast of man, Should sound in numbers worthy such a theme: While all whose souls have ever felt the force Of those enchanting passions, to my lyre Should throng attentive, ...
— Poetical Works of Akenside - [Edited by George Gilfillan] • Mark Akenside

... wait behind, my stay May aid the cause; dissembling I must learn, Necessity shall teach me how to vary My features to the looks of him I serve. I'll thrust myself disguis'd among the croud, And fill their ears with murmurs of the deed: Whisper all is not well, blow up the sparks Of discord, and it ...
— The Prince of Parthia - A Tragedy • Thomas Godfrey

... season the church (saith he) correcteth some things of a feruent earnestnesse, suffreth some things of a gentle mildnes, and dissembleth some things of a prudent consideration, and so beareth and winketh at the same, that oftentimes the euill which she abhorreth by such bearing and dissembling, is restrained and reformed. ...
— Chronicles 1 (of 6): The Historie of England 5 (of 8) - The Fift Booke of the Historie of England. • Raphael Holinshed

... successors, subjects, natives, and vassals, now and hereafter shall keep, observe, and fulfil, and that they shall keep, observe, and fulfil, really and effectually, all that you thus affirm, covenant, swear, authorize, and asseverate, without any deceit, fraud, duplicity, dissembling, or pretense. And in this manner, you shall, in our name, covenant, asseverate, and promise that we, in our own person, shall asseverate, swear, promise, authorize, and affirm all that you, in our name, asseverate, ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 • Emma Helen Blair

... famous Princes, the King, taking occasion of the death of these principall men of his armie, agreed, making none priuie thereto, to receiue the money which was offered him for his differing off the siege of the citie of Sagitta, yet dissembling to make peace, with the Saracens, but that he ment to go through with the worke, that he had begunne. Whereupon sending a message vnto Iaphet, hee aduised the English souldiers to come downe to Acres with their fleete, and to conferre and consult with him touching ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries - of the English Nation. v. 8 - Asia, Part I. • Richard Hakluyt

... in his mind, he ordered that, on a certain Sunday, after dinner, all the cavalry should get to horse, on the pretext of a tournament. The infantry, too, he caused to be ready for action. He himself, a Tiberius in dissembling, went to play at quoits, and was disturbed by his men coming to him and begging him to look on at their sports. The poor Indian queen hurried with the utmost simplicity into the snare prepared for her. She told the governor ...
— The Life of Columbus • Arthur Helps

... early deprived of the guiding influence of her fond parents, and seldom mixing in society—had very rare opportunities of forming any opinion of the world or its motives; and knew not the accomplished art of dissembling her feelings, when the ice of her outward reserve had been once broken. The conversation and ingenuous manner of her companion pleased her, and she took an interest and pleasure in his society, which she had no idea of concealing. What her feelings were, at this ...
— Fern Vale (Volume 1) - or the Queensland Squatter • Colin Munro

... following:—Benserade was caned for lampooning the Duc d'Epernon. Some days afterwards he appeared at court, but being still lame from the rough treatment he had received, he was forced to support himself by a cane. A wit, who knew what had passed, whispered the affair to the queen. She, dissembling, asked him if he had the gout? "Yes, madam," replied our lame satirist, "and therefore I make use of a cane." "Not so," interrupted the malignant Bautru, "Benserade in this imitates those holy martyrs who are always represented with the instrument ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... condition of abasement, from which a simple act of apostasy was at once sufficient to raise them to honor and wealth, "and from the meanest serfs gathered them to the caste of oppressors," we ought not to wonder that some of the Greeks should be mean, perfidious, and dissembling, but rather that any (as Mr. Gordon says) "had courage to adhere to their religion, and to eat the bread of affliction." But noble aspirations are fortunately indestructible in human nature. And in Greece the lamp of independence of spirit had been partially kept alive by the existence of a native ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... Squires came in to supper, he made casual announcement that he understood Bas had gone away somewhere. His vapid grin turned to a sneer as he mentioned Rowlett's name after the never-failing habit of his dissembling, but Dorothy set down his plate as though it had become suddenly too ...
— The Roof Tree • Charles Neville Buck

... buy the Rump's great saddle, With which it jockey'd the nation? And here is the bit and the bridle, And curb of dissimulation; And here's the trunk-hose of the Rump, And their fair dissembling cloak; And a Presbyterian jump, With an Independent smock. Says old ...
— Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 • Charles Mackay

... knew she was not dissembling. I could not think; I could not speak! The floor seemed flying beneath my feet, ...
— John Henry Smith - A Humorous Romance of Outdoor Life • Frederick Upham Adams

... compendious way. The most compendious, is that which is according to nature: that is, in all both words and deeds, ever to follow that which is most sound and perfect. For such a resolution will free a man from all trouble, strife, dissembling, and ostentation. ...
— Meditations • Marcus Aurelius

... female visitors would be found to lie in her profession of infidelity. This alienation of female society would, it was clear, be precipitated enormously by Mrs. Lee's frankness. A result that might by a dissembling policy have been delayed indefinitely, would now be hurried forward to an immediate crisis. And in this result went to wreck the very best part of Mrs. ...
— Autobiographic Sketches • Thomas de Quincey

... with this commission, Knight returned to England, rejoicing in the confidence of complete success. But, as soon as Wolsey had seen it, he pronounced the commission "as good as none at all".[597] The discovery did not improve his or Henry's opinion of the Pope's good faith; but, dissembling their resentment, they despatched, in February, 1528, Stephen Gardiner and Edward Foxe to obtain fresh and more effective powers. Eventually, on 8th June a commission was issued to Wolsey and Campeggio to try the case and pronounce ...
— Henry VIII. • A. F. Pollard

... lips with no moans are trembling, Hate of foes, or plaint of friends' dissembling; If sighs come—most patient prayers outlive them: 'Lord, these know not what ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 419, New Series, January 10, 1852 • Various

... open-mouthed and staring, for out from the gloom of the smithy issued Black George himself, with Prue upon his arm. The Ancient stared also, but, dissembling his vast surprise, he dealt the lid of his ...
— The Broad Highway • Jeffery Farnol

... that morning from the country, she had reached Paris at one o'clock and Miss Painter's landing some ten minutes later. Miss Painter's mouldy little man-servant, dissembling a napkin under his arm, had mildly attempted to oppose her entrance; but Anna, insisting, had gone straight to the dining-room and surprised her friend—who ate as furtively as certain animals—over a strange meal of cold mutton and lemonade. Ignoring the embarrassment she caused, ...
— The Reef • Edith Wharton

... obscure and too scholastick before the people, cold, and wanting of spiritual zeal, negligent in visiting of the sick, and caring for the poore; or indifferent in chosing of parts of the word not meetest for the flock, flatterers and dissembling at publick sins, and specially of great personages in their congregations, for flattery, or for fear, that all such persons bee censured, according to the degree of their faults, and continuing therein, ...
— The Acts Of The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland

... plot or scheme toward, not merely for her own freedom, but the utter overthrow of our own gracious Sovereign, who, if she hath kept this lady in durance, hath shielded her from her own bloodthirsty subjects. And for dissembling, I never saw her equal. Yet she, as thy mother tells me, is a pious and devout woman, who bears her troubles thus cheerfully and patiently, because she deems them a martyrdom for her religion. Ay, all women are riddles, they say, but this one the ...
— Unknown to History - A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland • Charlotte M. Yonge

... ruddy colour of the cloak, in which— the tree making a forest of itself for her to trip through, with her basket—Little Red Riding-Hood comes to me one Christmas Eve to give me information of the cruelty and treachery of that dissembling Wolf who ate her grandmother, without making any impression on his appetite, and then ate her, after making that ferocious joke about his teeth. She was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding-Hood, I should have known perfect bliss. But, it was ...
— Some Christmas Stories • Charles Dickens

... her boldly. His muscles tensed, Blaine watched every movement of the Zara's straying fingers. But her gaze was direct and kindly; there was no dissembling here. It was not the same Clyone he ...
— The Copper-Clad World • Harl Vincent

... whose pride and wilfull humour You have expos'd a sweet and hopefull Son To all the miseries that want can bring him, And such a Son, though you are most obdurate, To give whom entertainment Savages Would quit their Caves themselves, to keep him from Bleak cold and hunger: This dissembling woman, This Idol, whom you worship, all your love And service trod under her feet, designs you To fill a grave, or dead to lye a prey For ...
— The Spanish Curate - A Comedy • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... The "profound dissembling mind" which English historians, his cotemporaries, attribute to O'Neil, was now brought into daily exercise. When he discovered money to be the master passion of the Lord Deputy, he procured his connivance at the escape ...
— A Popular History of Ireland - From the earliest period to the emancipation of the Catholics • Thomas D'Arcy McGee

... other magistrates in whose districts the captain and his men might land were requested to arrest them, and to confiscate their drugs and spices. His Majesty warned the viceroy that this decree was issued to please the king of Portogal, and requested him to send news of the outcome. Dissembling and ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 - Volume III, 1569-1576 • E.H. Blair

... were remarks not altogether allusive and mysterious to the Frenchman's hoof-shaped shoes—delicate flattery of royal superfluity in toes; and there was no care that certain snarlings at "Mediceans" should be strictly inaudible. But Lorenzo Tornabuoni possessed that power of dissembling annoyance which is demanded in a man who courts popularity, and Tito, besides his natural disposition to overcome ill-will by good-humour, had the unimpassioned feeling of the alien towards names and details that move the deepest ...
— Romola • George Eliot

... one," said he, dissembling his amusement. "Professions—don't they all more or less involve sitting shut up in stuffy offices, among pigeon-holes full of dusty and futile papers, doing tiresome tasks for the greater glory of ...
— My Friend Prospero • Henry Harland

... our friends gainsaid; But then Romance required dissembling, (Ann Radcliffe taught us that!) which bred ...
— Collected Poems - In Two Volumes, Vol. II • Austin Dobson

... adoring sister had secured for the general perfect liberty of movement in the house where he was a guest. He had even his own entrance through a small door in one corner of the orangery. Thus he was not exposed that evening to the necessity of dissembling his agitation before the calm ignorance of the other inmates. He was glad of it. It seemed to him that if he had to open his lips, he would break out into horrible imprecation, start breaking furniture, smashing china ...
— The Point Of Honor - A Military Tale • Joseph Conrad

... Hoped, &c: for these the constitution individuall, and particular education do so vary, and they are so easie to be kept from our knowledge, that the characters of mans heart, blotted and confounded as they are, with dissembling, lying, counterfeiting, and erroneous doctrines, are legible onely to him that searcheth hearts. And though by mens actions wee do discover their designee sometimes; yet to do it without comparing ...
— Leviathan • Thomas Hobbes

... hasty is generally honest. It's your cool, dissembling, smiling hypocrite, of whom you should beware. There is no deceit about a bull dog. It's only the cur that sneaks up and bites you when your back's turned. Again, we say, beware of a man who has psalmody in ...
— Scientific American magazine, Vol. 2 Issue 1 • Various

... not altogether that," I answered, for dissembling was never an easy task for me, "as I only did what I believed would most please you. Nor have I anything to regret in my action, now that we have thus gained the pledge of the Pottawattomies for ...
— When Wilderness Was King - A Tale of the Illinois Country • Randall Parrish

... him most dissembling creature, Ile warrant you that he can neuer thriue, He showes himselfe, euen of as bad a nature, As euer was in any man aliue: Alas poore foole that hath this fellow got, Shee hath a Iewell of him, hath ...
— The Bride • Samuel Rowlands et al

... how he must be familiar with all & trust none, drinke, carouse and lecher with him out of whom he hopes to wring anie matter, sweare and forsweare, rather than be suspected, and in a word, haue the art of dissembling at his fingers ends as perfect as ...
— The Vnfortunate Traveller, or The Life Of Jack Wilton - With An Essay On The Life And Writings Of Thomas Nash By Edmund Gosse • Thomas Nash

... bonfire of a foul nest," lightly answered the minstrel, standing back as though to admire his handiwork. "Your vile hostelry burns well, my dissembling host." ...
— Under the Rose • Frederic Stewart Isham

... Fabens.—"There are some things which seem fair, and even generous in them, it is true. And Fairbanks has a way of looking very meek and innocent; and one of two things is certain: he must be unacquainted with the world, and incapable of a thought of deception, or else he is an arch and dissembling rogue. But there are some expressions about his eyes that I cannot like; and I think there is a little blarney about them both. I may be wrong; I hope I am, and if I am, that I may be forgiven. It is unpleasant to be haunted by these suspicions. But there, I could help ...
— Summerfield - or, Life on a Farm • Day Kellogg Lee

... inhabitant. But, on reflecting that the magistrates and principal inhabitants only were to blame, the people at large having been constrained by force or fear, he was now determined to punish only the most guilty and to pardon the rest. Yet, having certain private reasons for dissembling for the present with some of the principal persons of the place, he had selected the six who were now present, as principal inhabitants, to punish them as they richly deserved, that they might serve as a warning to all Peru. For this reason, therefore, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 5 • Robert Kerr

... he but burnt his lips; But mine's the greater smart, For kissing Love's dissembling chips ...
— The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 • Robert Herrick

... years as a spy I'd better be." Her face bore a hint of puzzlement under the tension as she looked at him. He could guess her thought—For a superman, he asks some simple-minded questions. But then what is he? Or is he only dissembling? ...
— The Sensitive Man • Poul William Anderson

... conjunction! as who should say, Lately come out of the fire, I would go thrust my self into the flame. Let Maistres nice go Saint it where she list, And coyly quaint it with dissembling face. I hold in scorn the fooleries that they use: I being free, will never subject my self To any such as she ...
— Fair Em - A Pleasant Commodie Of Faire Em The Millers Daughter Of - Manchester With The Love Of William The Conquerour • William Shakespeare [Apocrypha]

... constant pressure of the mind; the perpetual repetition of its acts. You detect at once a conceited, or foolish person. It is stamped on his countenance. You can see on the faces of the cunning or dissembling, certain corresponding lines, traced on the face as legibly as if ...
— Reading Made Easy for Foreigners - Third Reader • John L. Huelshof

... Valdracko is described as an old and experienced actor, "stricken in age, melancholick, ruling after the crabbed forwardness of his doting will, impartial, for he loved none but himself, politic because experienced, familiar with none except for his profit, skillful in dissembling, trusting no one, silent, covetous, counting all things honest that were profitable." This characterisation cannot possibly have referred to Shakespeare in the year 1585. When it is noticed, however, that nearly all of Greene's later attacks are directed against the Theatre and its fellows, ...
— Shakespeare's Lost Years in London, 1586-1592 • Arthur Acheson

... brought with him, not far from the walls, in a shady valley; when an opportunity is first afforded him of approaching the prince, extending the symbols of peace[23] with his suppliant hand, he tells him who he is, and from whom descended. He only conceals his crime, and, dissembling as to the {true} reason of his banishment, he entreats {him} to aid him {by a reception} either in his city or in his territory. On the other hand, the Trachinian {prince} addresses him with gentle lips, in words such as these: "Peleus, our bounties ...
— The Metamorphoses of Ovid - Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes - and Explanations • Publius Ovidius Naso

... undefinable; strong and weak by turns, indiscreet, dissembling, they are capable of anything.' 'Without doubt,' said M. de Lille, distressed that nothing had yet been said to him, and with a familiarity which was not likely to succeed; 'Without doubt. Look—' said he. The King interrupted him. I cited some traits in support of my opinion,—as that of ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XXI. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... Marquis, 'does me good like the sight of an honest cavalier.' I am sure Eustace might have said the same; and they sat talking together long and earnestly about how it fared with the King in Scotland, and how he had been made to take the Covenant, which, as they said, was in very truth a dissembling which must do him grievous ill, spiritually, however it might serve temporally. My Lord repeated his lady's invitation to a dinner, which was to be followed up by sleighing on hills formed of ice. Annora, who always loved rapid motion as an exhilaration of spirits, brightened at the notion, and ...
— Stray Pearls • Charlotte M. Yonge

... and thus, as talent cannot be stifled, it is misdirected in private; you seek ascendency over your own limited circle; and what should have been genius degenerates into cunning. Brought up from your cradles to dissembling your most beautiful emotions—your finest principles are always tinctured with artifice. As your talents, being stripped of their wings are driven to creep along the earth, and imbibe its mire and clay; so are your ...
— Godolphin, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... crisis in the character; and henceforth we see Juliet assume a new aspect. The fond, impatient, timid girl, puts on the wife and the woman: she has learned heroism from suffering, and subtlety from oppression. It is idle to criticize her dissembling submission to her father and mother; a higher duty has taken place of that which she owed to them; a more sacred tie has severed all others. Her parents are pictured as they are, that no feeling for them may interfere in the slightest degree with our sympathy for the lovers. In ...
— Characteristics of Women - Moral, Poetical, and Historical • Anna Jameson

... stood, in which he slept for the most part. But his son held him back, and spoke in words of entreaty "Father, don't go in a hurry, and be not amniote with the maiden! I alone have to bear the blame of all this confusion, Which our friend has increased by his unexpected dissembling. Speak then, honour'd Sir! for to you the affair I confided; Heap not up pain and annoyance, but rather complete the whole matter; For I surely in future should not respect you so highly, If you play practical jokes, instead of displaying ...
— The Poems of Goethe • Goethe

... never before understand what I now see clearly, To wit, that Democracy tends to level all human distinctions!" His fate so untoward and sad the Pine-tree statesman, bewailing, Stood in the corridor there while Democrats freed from confinement Came trooping forth from the chamber, dissembling all, as they passed him, Hilarious sentiments painful indeed to observe, and remarking: "O friend and colleague of the Speaker, what ails ...
— Shapes of Clay • Ambrose Bierce

... goods were sold to the merchants of Calicut, by the governor's procurement, with fair promises of part payment shortly. But it is not the custom of the best or the worst in this country to keep their words, being certain only in dissembling. Mr Woolman was desirous of going to Nassapore to make sales, but the governor put him off with divers shifts from time to time. The 3d July, our messenger for Surat returned, reporting that he had been set upon when well forwards ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr



Words linked to "Dissembling" :   pretext, pretense, wile, indirection, four flush, fakery, illusion, lip service, misrepresentation, obscurantism, dissemble, imposture, take-in, cheating, guile, bluff, simulation, duplicity, cheat, stalking-horse, chicanery, delusion, trickery, pretending, chicane, head game, falsification, shenanigan, hypocrisy, double-dealing, impersonation



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